The Alternate Upgrade
by Moonlady
Summary: Companion piece (sort of) to "The Upgrade". An alternate universe where the events of the movie never took place, but Sugar Rush gets the upgrade anyway. What might happen? What about King Candy? Will Ralph and Vanellope ever meet? Lets see...
1. Prologue

Author's Notes: Okay okay okay... Bear with me for a minute here. I'm sure you're all somewhat familiar with my fanfic "The Upgrade" (and are most vexed with me for not getting back to it in a timely manner, sorry!). But here's a thought for you.

What if... The events of the movie never happened... but the Upgrade DID? How might that go?

And yes, it will STILL be Ralph/Vanellope. But it might take a little bit.

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**The Alternate Upgrade**

**Prologue:** The Upgrade

The citizens of Sugar Rush didn't know what to make of it. One minute they'd been chatting and fiddling around with their cars, and the next...

Taffyta examined her new body and outfit with apprehension. She looked around and could easily spot all the other racers doing the same. No one seemed to know just what had happened.

"What the hell?" Taffyta muttered to herself.

"Where's King Candy?!" Jubileena shouted.

_Elsewhere..._

Vanellope sat up quickly in her little cove and-

"Oww!" She flopped back down onto her bed and held her forehead tightly. She sighed and swung her legs a bit to straighten them out and- THUNK! Her boot hit what she thought was the wall, but that didn't make any sense. After a moment she was finally able to sit up, slowly this time, and see what was going on.

She gasped in surprise. Her legs, at least she thought they were her legs, were still slightly bent because they didn't have enough room on her little spongecake. She scrambled quickly out of bed and stood upright. She whirled around, trying to get a look at herself.

She couldn't see much, her long hair got in the way, but that didn't deter her. She spun in the other direction and started patting herself down. She twisted a little too far and fell to the floor of the cave, dizzy and shell shocked.

She sighed and looked up, trying to distract herself. It worked a little too well. The track over the Diet Cola Hotsprings had been repaired! She followed it with her eyes as it looped around the whole cave and went out a hole near the top.

"What's going on?" She asked the air miserably.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Okay guys, I PROMISE I'll get back to "The Upgrade" eventually. Pinky swear. It's just that, y'know... you get stuck sometimes. I'd been working on some of my other fanfics (as those who were following me might know) but there seems to be an awfully high demand for Wreck-It Ralph. So I just thought I'd... try this. To get the juices flowing again.


	2. The Reaction

**Author's Note:** Well, the feedback wasn't negative. So, on with the show I guess.

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Chapter 1: The Reaction

King Candy gaped as the world around him dissolved into code and the racers all collapsed onto the 'ground'. The mountains, the tracks, the SKY... All breaking apart into pixelated bits and numbers.

"What? What's happening? What's going on?!" He shouted. He looked at his hands as the King Candy facade crumbled into pixels and disappeared. Turbo just stared in horror and amazement as it floated away. He collapsed to his knees.

Everything was silent and black for what seemed like an eternity... then something started to happen. The racers all started to dissolve like the scenery had. But instead of just disappearing, the pixels began to reform just as soon as they broke apart. It looked almost like a swarm of holographic bees buzzing around each of them in their own respective colors.

Quickly deciding that he _didn't_ want that to happen to him he tried to beat a hasty retreat. He didn't know where he would go, but far away seemed preferable. The whole game had turned into one giant version of the code room. The code was changing, altering the entire game. Should he flee and then try to sneak back in after it was all finished? But how when the game didn't seem to have a door to the Station anymore?

No... There was no way out of this. Nowhere that he could wait out the storm. He had to find a way to make sure the game didn't alter him out of existence entirely. He had to find the code room. The real one, the central one where all the old code might still be hidden when all of this had passed. If he could find that then he still had a shot.

Turbo swam away quickly into the black.

+++[Later...]+++

Vanellope, having gotten over the initial shock of the whole thing, decided to venture out into the wild and see if this strange thing had affected the other racers. She'd not gotten a step out of the entrance to Diet Cola Mountain when she spotted the smooth pink kart parked just outside.

The kart was curved high in the front, low in the middle and had hard candy wheels with a flower pattern on them. The back of the seat looked something like a crown. King Candy's kart, was Vanellope's first instinct. But it couldn't be his, his kart was white. So whose...

_This is my kart_, Vanellope thought. It didn't make any sense, but she just knew it. Just like she'd always known she was a racer. She dove into the driver's seat and caressed the wheel, a grin on her face.

"Wait, why do I have a kart now?" Vanellope asked, sitting back in the seat and pondering over the console. She recognized all the gauges and devices immediately. She turned the engine on and broke into a smile as it made the whole car hum.

"I'm a REAL racer now!" Vanellope exclaimed with a wicked grin. Oh, she couldn't WAIT to see Taffyta's face. She revved the engine a couple of times before taking off to the stadium.

The Stadium... The place where she'd always dreamed of tearing out of the starting line up to cheers of adulation. Now she'd finally get that chance, she could almost hear the fans now... Wait. That wasn't coming from her head, people were actually screaming.

When Vanellope pulled up to the stadium she took in the scene. Everyone else had changed too, it wasn't just her. But apparently no one else had processed it quite as well. Taffyta was screaming at Snowanna over something, and Rancis has apparently been punched in the face, if the dark around his right eye was anything to go by.

"What's going on guys?" Vanellope asked, getting out of her kart. This simple question made everyone stop and give her their attention.

"Glitch?" Taffyta asked.

"Nope!" Vanellope answered gleefully. "Not anymore! The game gave me a kart and everything! I'm a racer now, isn't that great?"

Taffyta gaped at her in confusion. This couldn't really be true could it? But... Vanellope had changed just like all the other racers had. And she had a kart... But wait.

"Why would the game give you King Candy's kart?" Taffyta asked suspiciously.

"It's not King Candy's kart, it's mine. Besides, this one is pink, and his is white." Vanellope answered.

This interchange had made the others circle round and examine both Vanellope and the kart she'd driven up in. True enough, it didn't seem to be King Candy's. It was lacking a few of the bells and whistles his had, like his line of fanciful horns and the flags he had on the back. But it begged an important question...

Why did it have the exact same motif?

Before the question could _actually_ be asked, an alarm sounded through the air. It was the quarter alert.

"A quarter alert? But we haven't done the roster race!" Candlehead howled.

"Oh nevermind that now! It just defaults to yesterday's list when that happens." Taffyta said. "Just get into your starting positions."

Vanellope hopped into her kart, intent on being part of the game for once. But if she wasn't on the roster for today where would her start position be? Did she have her own track, and if so then where was it? Vanellope mused over her kart for a moment before deciding.

She headed for the castle.

* * *

**Author's Note:** So, this would have been out a lot earlier, like last night, but it's been really windy lately and that keeps knocking out our internet connection. Ah well. Stay tuned for a glimpse at the Story Mode next chapter.


End file.
